Unraveling
by Melodious Vagrant
Summary: Holly Simmons learns one day not to judge someone by their cover or their reputation, especially not someone by the name of Ponyboy Curtis.
1. Chapter 1 : Encounter

**- Chapter One -**

**Encounter**

_Author's Note:_

_I don't own anything, all rights to the Outsiders goes to S.E. Hinton. To those of you who think the later half seems familiar: yes, this is a re-write of a story by L2._

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><p>The day started exactly how so many before it had. Holly woke up that day, ate breakfast, showered, and was driven to school by her big brother.<p>

"Hey, Holly," a delighted Anne asked her good friend, Holly. "So, I heard that your parents are going outta town tomorrow. You gonna throw a party or somethin'?"

Holly gave her an unsettling look. "Yeah, my parents are outta town, but how'd you know? Thomas told me he wanted to throw a party just two nights ago and I really haven't told anyone yet."

Anne scoffed at her. "Does it really matter how I know?"

"Yeah, I don't really want to make a big deal out of this one. You remember what happened last time?" For a moment, Anne looked at Holly wide-eyed in shock, but shrugged it off quickly.

"Well, let's just say I get the word around, ya know? And besides, as long as you make it clear, not to let anyone do that, no one will"

Holly rolled her eyes at her best friend. "Yeah, I doubt that."

"Well, maybe you should get your brother to ya know, not bring out the alcohol on this one? That way less things'll get broken."

"Anne, it's not like I haven't already thought of that but it's Thomas were talkin' about. Do you really think I can convince him _not_ to bring beer to the party?"

"Good point."

As the two continued to walk down the hallways, Holly spotted someone. "Hey, Anne, isn't that your boyfriend over there?"

Across the hall was a tall and skinny young man named William, Anne's boyfriend. He was with two other of his friends and they were all talking to another kid. This kid had a moderate build and grease lathered over his coarse, reddish-brown hair.

"Yeah," Anne answered with an unusually plucky smile.

"Who's that with him? He seems familiar."

"The short one? Oh, that's just Ponyboy. Isn't he in your Math class, right?"

"Oh yeah, but why's your boyfriend talkin' to him," Holly questioned, taking special note in the rather menacing look on William and his friends.

Again, she scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "Oh, he's just jealous."

"Why would he be jealous?"

"Because I watched a movie with him since Will pretty much blew me off." She paused for a moment. "Oh I hope Will didn't find out I called him cute."

"You watched a movie with him? And you think he's cute?" Holly's face contorted just thinking about it.

"Yeah, I was with Cherry and she introduced us. And, yeah I think he's cute. You don't?"

"Um, I guess, if you like guys like him..." Holly's voice trailed off for a moment. "But wait, you called him cute?"

"What? Just because I have a boyfriend means that I can't go 'round thinkin' other boys are cute?"

They both saw how Will seemed to get a bit more riled up as their conversation continued. "Yeah, so stuff like _that_ doesn't happen. Anne, you better go, they don't look too hot over there."

"Ugh, fine. Later Holly," she happily chirped.

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><p><em>Later that day...<em>

Holly was sitting in her Math class, just waiting for time to pass by. The door began to creep open and there was a handsome boy with a callous look to his face, Ponyboy.

But even though she's really never once gave him a second look, Holly couldn't deny that he was good-looking.

There was always something about him, though, something Holly didn't quite like. He was quiet and mysterious, perhaps _too_ quiet for her tastes. Just because he was quiet, doesn't mean his name was never heard around the school before.

Not only was his name Ponyboy, but there was a time the in the previous school year where you couldn't go through one day without hearing his name at least ten times.

Even way back then was his character shrouded in mystery. While he did have many friends all over the school, that didn't change the fact that he came off as someone who didn't really care about others or even life in general.

It was almost as if he'd wander through the days with that same fixed expression of emptiness. A blank stare. Like he was lost in his own world, and if he wasn't reading or doing work, he would be writing in his notebook.

But if she's ever heard anything about him. It was that he was really your classic hood that owned knives and guns and carried them around. He was known to smoke and possibly even drink. The whole demeanor that he has was merely just an act.

Last year, it was said that he murdered a kid from school tried to runaway from the crime. The po-po finally got them after he and his bud tried to set a church on fire with kids on it. But he never got arrested or anything.

Holly did know that something was up with those rumors. If he was your classic hood then how come he has so much friends, including Anne? If he was a no good greaser then how did he manage to get into an advanced class like pre-calculus?

_Perhaps he isn't what he seems to be or what people says he is._

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><p>Holly rushed to get her belongings together as the bell rang. When she got most of her stuff, she made off but ran into Ponyboy.<p>

They both dropped their items and quickly endeavored to recover them as they both muttered, "Sorry," to each other.

She had study block for her second class. With nothing else to do, she rummaged through her backpack in search of homework to complete but instead found an unfamiliar notebook entitled _"The Outsiders."_

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

**That's it for the first chapter. Please excuse all spelling mistakes I may have overlooked and I hope you liked it.**


	2. Chapter 2 : Cipher

**- Chapter Two -**

**Cipher**

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><p><em>Author's Note:<em>

_I don't own anything, all rights to the Outsiders goes to S.E. Hinton. Oh, and to all my reviewers and subscribers, I can't thank you enough. You have no idea how weird it is for me to write a story like this._

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><p>"Holly...Holly!"<p>

"Huh? What?" Holly exclaimed, startled half to death.

"What's up, Holly?" Anne asked her friend.

"What do you mean?" she asked, totally clueless.

"You haven't been doin' nothin' since you got here in lunch. Nothing but read that book and look 'round the lunch room every once and a while"

"So?"

"Dear, it's called lunch block. I reckon yer 'sposed to be eatin' right now, ya know?"

"Well..." Holly staggered trying to get her thoughts together. "What if I'm not hungry? There ain't no law around sayin' I have to. 'Sides, last year, we usually left the school and hung out somewhere and didn't even eat half the time."

"Really? Why leave?" Anne asked, perplexed.

"'Cause in our block, there were a lot of boys playin' around, throwin' spoons and bottles at each other and it was just plain irritating."

Just as soon as she responded to her friend, Holly stuck that book right back in front of her face.

Anne walked closer and scrutinized her good friend. "The Outsiders? What's that 'bout, Holly?"

Holly quickly put the book down and back into her purse in a flighty bout. "It's nothing," Holly insisted. Holly blushed as she knew that Anne was right about her. She kept looking at the other side of the lunch table in search of Ponyboy, noticing the greasers that he was sitting with and all the stupid stunts they'd be pulling around.

But Ponyboy was different than his friends, from what Holly could see. A few of his friends would rather spend their time joking around, laughing obnoxiously loud and roaming around the lunch room, often to flirt or bother some girls who were totally out of their league. Others were a bit more stoic, wandering glares and looks of suspicion seemed to be forever pasted on their faces.

Ponyboy, on the other hand, spent his time reading a book right after he finished eating his lunch.

"Hey, Anne...about this Ponyboy kid. Is it true what they say about him?" Holly drew her words out slowly, unsure of how her friend would take it.

Anne took a second or two to figure out her answer. "Huh? Oh, of course not, Holly. I'd thought you'd know better than that."

"Really? That what _is_ really up with him?"

Anne held a long face. "Well, it's kinda hard to say. With everything that happened to him last year, it's getting real confusing about what happened back then. But a few weeks ago, I met up with Marcia and she helped explain the whole thing with me, but she sure didn't like to talk about it.

Holly, everybody says that he's just another greasy kid out there, but that isn't true. He ain't violent and he sure ain't dumb. In fact, he's real smart and sweet if you get to know him." Anne's voice and eyes seemed to trail off.

"Really?" Holly asked her softly. "How did you know Ponyboy?"

"Oh..." Anne held her words as see searched for an answer. "Oh yeah, he was in my Biology class last year. I sat right next to for most of the year and went by without really noticing him once. 'Least until we 'sposed to dissect a frog and our plastic knife wasn't working so he pulled out a switchblade."

"He did? What did you do?"

Anne blushed thinking about it. "Uh, I kinda screamed and called him out to be a hood. I hope he didn't take it so bad. But right before the school year ended, one of my best friends, David, since he kept hearing about everything goin' around, he wanted to go over there and visit him."

"Oh, how'd it go?"

"Ponyboy really didn't seem to what to talk about anything, right then. He seemed a little, uh, off...Like his mind was somewhere else." Anne began to smile lightly. "But I was so glad to know that he was okay."

"Anne," Holly pleaded. "You never answered my question."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Anne chirped, blushing with a crazy grin. One that very quickly deteriorated into a somber expression. "A couple of boys cornered Ponyboy and his friend..." Anne looked back Holly, but sorry engulfed her eyes.

"They were going to kill them, Holly."

"What! Why would anyone kill them?"

"Y'know Marcia's boyfriend?"

"Randy?"

"Yeah, well he told me that there were these things happening around the greaser and Soc boys. None of them really liked each other to begin with, and it didn't help that a few Socs loved to get drunk. Pretty much, they were having it out, constantly, like every few days. Almost every time they did have it out, one of them would have a black eye at least..."

"And at worst?" Holly questioned, gulping.

"One kid, a greaser usually, would have gotten beaten to near death?"

"How come I never heard about it?"

"Because no one but the Soc boys and the greaser boys never knew about it. Not even their girls, they knew that their boys would get into fights, get drunk or smoke, but nothing specifically."

"Well anyway," Anne said, getting her thoughts back into place. "After the kids were about to drown Ponyboy in the park fountain, his friend brought out his knife and killed one of the boys. After that, they ran away from town to this faraway place where they hid for a few days or something. They didn't get caught until they found the church burning and ran in to save the kids inside."

"Wait, I thought they set the church on fire," Holly asked.

"No, that's just a lie, Holly. Didn't you see the newspaper?"

"Who would lie about something like that? And no! I don't know any kid who reads the newspaper."

"Well there really wasn't that much on the article anyways."

"Anne, you were saying, after the fire," Holly stated impatiently.

"Oh, right, I'm sorry. Well actually, that's about it. At least all that Randy and Marcia told me. I know Ponyboy was having a real tough time after coming back home, I heard that some kid almost had a fight with him right before the end of the school year.

"Holly?"

Holly sat down, deeply engrossed in her thoughts. She was right about the book after all, it was pretty much Ponyboy's journal of everything that happened. And if both the journal and Anne were telling the truth, then it meant that Ponyboy was a totally different kid than everyone said he was. She knew this even if she hadn't read all of the book yet.

In this journal called "_The Outsiders_", were his deepest thoughts. How he felt about the whole Soc and greaser thing, the time he met Cherry and Marcia. Holly couldn't deny that Ponyboy could certainly turn a prose, the book's prevalence is the reality that it depicts.

There isn't a book out there that you could find that was anything like this.

Holly took out the book and held it in silence. Then she stared back at the table at the other side of the cafeteria. Ponyboy was looking frantically for something that he assumed he put in his backpack.

"I ought to give it back to him," Holly thought to herself.

She then preceded to stand up, book in her hand and walked over to him.

"Holly! Where you going'?" Anne asked with a worried expression.

"Oh, I'm going to talk to Ponyboy." Anne looked as though she wanted to say something, but kept quiet and silently agreed to her friend's decision.

...

"Hey, Ponyboy..."

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong>

**Sorry, but that's all for this chapter. As I asked before, please excuse any spelling or grammar errors that I may have overlooked and I really hope you like this one. Oh, as a heads up, the next chapter will be very short**


	3. Chapter 3 : Invitation

**- Chapter Three -**

**Invitation**

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><p><em>Author's Note and disclaimer:<em>

_I own nothing, all rights to the Outsiders goes to S.E. Hinton. I'm sorry this chapter was so short._

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><p>"Hey Ponyboy," she said as the attention of four boys shifted in her direction. Besides Ponyboy, there was a lean young man with curly, dark brown hair. He had a cool yet bitter expression on his face. Another man wearing a leather jacket had short reddish hair with eyes that seemed to dance about, of all of them; he seemed the most intrigued to see her.<p>

The last man on the table didn't even seem to notice Holly, not that it bothered her. He was muscular, had fair skin, pale green eyes, and coarse blond hair. The man was wearing a black tank top with a blue button-up shirt.

"Hey there," one of them said as he smiled real wide at Holly.

"Two-Bit, lay of her, she obviously didn't come her to see you."

"Shut up, Steve," the man said, nudging his friend with his elbow. The two started to bicker mildly as Ponyboy decided stand up and approach her.

"Cool it, guys," he commanded half-heartedly as he turned around to Holly. "You wanted to talk to me," he said with meager interest, or so it seemed.

"Uh, yeah..." Holly responded slowly, not entirely sure of what to say. Now that she thought about it, Holly really didn't want to give him his journal, at least _not just yet_. Not only had she yet to finish the book, but there were still details that she hadn't put together yet. Even if this were a highly personal journal, the she couldn't quite dismiss the possibility that some details could have been romanticized or even imagined.

"What?" Ponyboy asked her, a bit flustered. Holly decided she wanted to keep the book, and panicked.

"Um, I just came by to ask you if you...You see, my brother and I are having this party tomorrow and I wanted to know if you wanted to come," Holly explained, unsure of where those words came from.

Ponyboy was quite taken by this. His eyebrows rose in astonishment. "Thanks Holly, but y'know that ain't really my thing."

Holly frowned. "That's okay, just promise me that you'll think about it, okay?" she inquired with a soft voice.

He frowned back at her and glanced back at his friends, two of which began throwing things at each other. Ponyboyu then sighed lightly. "Okay, Holly, I will."

Holly's heart was swimming as she grinned real wide. "Thanks, Ponyboy!" she exclaimed jubilantly.

Rubbing the back of his head and blushing lightly, Ponyboy muttered the words, "It's okay, Holly. I'll see ya later."

With that, the two then left to their corresponding tables in the lunch room.


End file.
